Every horse has, inside of them, their perfect ideal trot.
Have you ever dreamed what it would be like or you just dream of that perfect ideal trot? You know, the trot that makes you giggle where you're riding along as if to music or maybe out in the pasture or a wide open field?
Just trotting... that effortless, smooth, easy, fun trot. Do you dream of that? I know, I certainly did.
It's our job to discover what that is, how to get it, and then how to develop it to scale it or to amplify it.
I used to feel that I didn't know how to find it. This is a question of probably every horse person.
Let's discover five tips that will help you to pull that out of your horse, to find it and to develop it.
#1. Warm up
The warm up is so crucial.
If you would like my free warm up video training that I've done just click HERE.
The best is a very slow, strategic, methodical and effective warm up.
One that gets the synovial fluid moving into your horses joints so that you know that your horse is warmed up and ready to move.
Even though the warmup is so crucial we sometimes don't spend enough time or attention on it. It's pretty common to rush ahead to the fun stuff!
Every horse has a different, unique ideal warm up specifically for them.
So in the end, it really is all about testing, tweaking and evaluating what is working for you and your horse. Finding what gives you the best results and the most comfort for your horse.
#2. Saddle fit
You might think that this goes without saying...
but, it needs repeating because there are so many factors that can off set your once fitting saddle.
This is a topic that I teach in my clinics...it always took up so much time and effort because it's always something that's constantly changing.
We do need to pay attention to the saddle fit with the changing seasons we get changing body shapes.
The amount of hair, the amount of body fat, the amount of fitness, the amount of conditioning, musculature... those things are all going to affect saddle fit.
You can learn it's not difficult, it just takes time to learn that skill or you can hire somebody. But make sure you hire somebody who really knows what they're talking about.
#3. Pain
It's important to eliminate any pain or know any pain areas in your horse's body.
Just imagine you are an athlete or you are a dancer. If you have pain somewhere, you're going to be compensating for that pain somewhere else in your body.
That will set up a chain reaction because we are holistic beings, everything is related to everything else. So if there is a point of pain somewhere with your horse, that is going to cause problems with your trot.
I had a very intimate experience with a horse that I rode for many years. I always used to feel like this is not his perfect ideal trot. It doesn't feel like it. It's either hard to ride or it's jarring. It's uneven.
There was something not ideal with that trot. So I developed, over the years, a system and a way of finding and knowing your horse's ideal trot.
Eliminating pain or at least identifying the pain and then working with that is critical.
#4. Positioning
By positioning I mean the knowledge of recognizing your horse's weaknesses and your horse's strengths.
And if you know those two things, you also then probably know your horse's habits. So they're positioning (the position of their body) enables you to find that perfect, ideal trot.
If there is some crookedness or a some habit of stuckness in their body, they just will not be able to give it to you. It's just not possible.
Knowing that positioning of their weaknesses... and therefore their habits and then working with that to help them to level out the weaknesses and the strengths.
Find the middle ground and find the habits that are holding them back and you'll be on your way to that awesome trot!
#5. Scaling the trot
When you find the ideal and perfect trot then you can scale it or amplify it.
I was a dancer, a professional dancer and so I know the process of this very clearly.
What we had to do was of course eliminate pain, and then find our positioning.
After we did those two things, then we would scale and the amplify. We knew that our bodies would always revert back to it's habits when the scaling process began and it is the same with the horse.
So as you push a little bit forward to amplify that trot that you've identified, you may go backwards a little bit.
Back into the habits that your horse has or the weaknesses that your horse has... recognizing that is going to happen and then accepting that plateau place... knowing that you will then go higher with your trot after that.
As a dancer, I knew that would happen but we had the training and the skills in order to amplify throughout that plateau time.
That's the time when you can really take advantage of the time and the effort... and then do the development that it takes.
It takes time for us to develop our horses skeletal system and the musculature and the nerve innervation along with it... the whole system.
It takes time for all that coordination to get in place.
It takes time in order to develop and amplify so that you will then have that perfect ideal trot that you're looking for...
The trot that you dreamt of when you were trotting and singing or trotting to music or trotting into the sunset.!
So let's review...
- Warm up...slow and methodical and strategic.
- Saddle fit, make sure it's updated regularly.
- Pain, make sure you identify and evaluate.
- Positioning your horse's weaknesses... and strengths and habits.
Identifying those and working with those, and then ... only then, after those things have been paid attention to...
- Scale and amplify the trot.
Attention to details in these 5 areas will help you to find and reveal your horse's most ideal and perfect trot!
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